Dakota Ridge Trail

Dakota Ridge Trail at a glance

The Dakota Ridge Trail is a short foothills trail that meanders the west side of the Dakota hogback, the low, tilted ridge that forms the east wall of Sanitas Valley in north Boulder. OSMP measures it at 1.40 miles with about 574 feet of gain, and rates it easy to medium. It's a narrower, rockier, more rolling path than the wide gravel Sanitas Valley Trail beside it, which is exactly why runners love it. You climb through ponderosa pine, catch openings out over the valley and the foothills, and you can string it into a loop instead of an out-and-back.

Where the Dakota Ridge Trail is, and which one it is

This is Boulder's Dakota Ridge, on City of Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks land, east of the Sanitas Valley Trail. It's a different place from the better-known Dakota Ridge at Red Rocks Park in Morrison, south of Denver, so if you're mapping a route, make sure you're pointed at the Boulder OSMP trail. The Boulder version sits right on the northwest edge of town, minutes from downtown, tucked between Mount Sanitas to the west and the Newlands neighborhood to the east.

Trailhead and parking

Start at the Centennial Trailhead, at Broadway and Mapleton Avenue. It's the same trailhead that serves the Sanitas Valley and Mount Sanitas trails, so one lot feeds the whole network. The lot has 31 standard spaces plus 2 ADA spaces, with street parking nearby, and it fills early on weekend mornings. Settlers Park and the Red Rocks trailhead are just to the south if you'd rather come at the ridge from that side or combine the two. Regional bus routes stop at Broadway and Mapleton, which makes this one of the easier Boulder trailheads to reach without a car.

What the trail is like

From the trailhead you head up the ridge on a narrow 3-to-6-foot tread through open ponderosa pine. It's steady rather than steep, with enough rock and roll underfoot to keep it interesting, and gaps in the trees that open west toward Mount Sanitas and back down over the valley. Spring brings wildflowers along the ridge. This is Boulder foothills country, so watch for mountain lion and bear activity, keep dogs close, and give wildlife room.

Dogs on the Dakota Ridge Trail

Dogs are welcome. On OSMP trails they need to be leashed, or off leash only if they're enrolled in the city's Voice and Sight program, wearing a current green tag, and genuinely under voice and sight control the whole time. The Voice and Sight tag is an annual program with an education requirement, and tags expire at the end of each year, so an out-of-town dog should be on leash here. Because this is a busy, shared corridor with runners and horses, a leash is the easy default.

Making a loop with the Sanitas trails

Most people don't hike Dakota Ridge on its own. The classic outing from the Centennial Trailhead is to walk or run up the wide Sanitas Valley Trail and come back down the Dakota Ridge Trail, or the reverse, for a rolling loop of a few miles with the valley on one side and the ridge on the other. If you want to earn a real view, branch onto the Mount Sanitas Trail, which climbs steeply to the summit and is a much harder day. Note the whole area is closed to bikes: Dakota Ridge is open to hikers, dogs, and horses only.

Best time to go

Dakota Ridge works most of the year. Spring is best for wildflowers, fall for cool, clear air on the open stretches, and winter is usually walkable between storms since it sits low in the foothills. Summer middays get hot and exposed in the gaps between the pines, so go early. Any season, early mornings on weekdays are the quietest, because this trailhead is popular.

Nearby trails and guides

• All hikes in Boulder: the full hiking hub, sorted by difficulty.
• Mount Sanitas: the steep summit climb from the same trailhead, when you want to earn a bigger view.
• Sanitas Valley Trail: the wide, gentle path that pairs with Dakota Ridge to make the loop.

Recommended nearby

A few local spots we'd point a Dakota Ridge morning toward.

Dakota Ridge Trail FAQ

Sources

Facts on this page are drawn from these authoritative sources:

• City of Boulder OSMP: Dakota Ridge Trail
• City of Boulder OSMP: Centennial Trailhead
• City of Boulder OSMP: Sanitas Valley Trail
• City of Boulder OSMP: Voice and Sight Program
• City of Boulder OSMP: Dogs on OSMP